What's Good About Allegro PCB Editor Artwork Film Capabilities? 16.6 Has Several New Enhancements!

The 16.6 Allegro PCB Editor release contains several enhancement to the Artwork Film generation.

Read on for more details …

Film Domain

Artwork films can now be designated by the domain where they appear. There are four domains available; Artwork, PDF, IPC2581, and Visibility. Access the User Interface by clicking on ‘Domain Selection’. One of the benefits of the domain form is the ability to segregate films for artwork versus films for PDF out:



Select Manufacture – Artwork, then click the ‘Film Control Tab’. Click the ‘Domain Selection’ Tab:


Artwork Film Name Update  

Film names have been increased from 17 to a maximum of 46 characters.

Artwork Option - Draw Holes

The film control form has been enhanced with a new option called ‘Draw Holes only’. The PIN and/or VIA CLASS must be specified for the film to control which holes are plotted. The option is not allowed if the film record includes ETCH Class. The holes that are plotted are true size; this includes oval or rectangular slots.

It’s probably best to disable the visibility of all layers - ‘Color Dialog – Global Visibility’ = ‘off’:

 

Select Manufacture – Artwork, then click the ‘Film Control Tab’. Delete the ETCH Class associated with the ‘Bottom’ Film record; use RMB – Cut:
   

     
Check the box adjacent to layer ‘Bottom’ and enable the ‘Draw Holes Only’ option, then click ‘Create Artwork’:


 
Import the artwork layer, File – Import – Artwork. Browse to the Bottom layer artwork file and select a class/subclass to which you want to import the data. Click ‘Load File’:

 

Place the bounding box anywhere in the workspace (here are the resulting artwork drill holes):

 


Please share your experiences using these new capabilities.

Jerry “GenPart” Grzenia